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प्रश्न
Answer the following question briefly:
Why does the poet decide to stand and wait till the snake has finished drinking? What
does this tell you about the poet? (Notice that he uses 'someone' instead of 'something'
for the snake.)
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उत्तर
The poet decides to stand and wait till the snake has finished drinking because he thinks that the snake came before him. The poet stands waiting with his pitcher ‘I came down with my pitcher’ and feels that there is some guest at the water trough. The poet feels himself honoured that someone has come to drink water from his trough. This shows that the poet is a lover of nature who sees the snake as a big creation of nature.
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संबंधित प्रश्न
For he seemed to me again like a king.
Like a king in exile, uncrowned in the underworld,
Now due to be crowned again.
And so, I missed my chance with one of the lords
Of life.
And I have something to expiate:
A pettiness.
(a) Why is the snake called a king in exile?
(b) What is the pettiness referred to in these lines?
(c) What does the word ‘underworld’ mean?
What does the poet compare the snake's drinking habits to? Why?
What is the poet’s dual attitude towards the snake?
What is the dilemma that the poet faces when he sees the snake?
Why did the poet try to harm the snake ?
What were the conflicting thoughts in the poet's mind on seeing the snake?
Read what W.W.E. Ross feels when he sees a snake and fill in the table given
below:
The snake trying to escape the
pursuing stick, with sudden curvings
of thin long body. How beautiful and
graceful are his shapes !
He glides through the water away
from the stroke. O let him go over the
water into the reeds to hide without
hurt. Small and green he is harmless
even to children Along the sand
he lay until observed
and chased away, and now
he vanishes in the ripples
among the green slim reeds.
| What is the snake doing? | Words to describe the snake | The Poet's plea |
Based on your reading of the poem, answer the following question by ticking the correct option:
- 'Sicilian July', 'Etna smoking' and 'burning bowels of the earth' are images that convey
that
Based on your reading of the poem, answer the following question by ticking the correct option:
- 'Asort of horror , a sort of protest overcame me' - The poet is filled with protest because
Based on your reading of the poem, answer the following question by ticking the correct option:
- In the line 'And as he slowly drew up, snake-easing his shoulders, and entered farther'
the phrase snake easing' his shoulders means
Based on your reading of the poem, answer the following question by ticking the correct option:
- He seemed to me like a king in exile…' The poet refers to the snake as such to emphasize that the snake
Based on your reading of the poem, answer the following question by ticking the correct option:
- 'I thought how paltry, how vulgar, what a mean act' -The poet is referring to
Answer the following question briefly:
In stanza 2 and 3, the poet gives a vivid description of the snake by using suggestive expressions. What picture of the snake do you form on the basis of this description?
Answer the following question briefly:
What does the poet want to convey by saying that the snake emerges from the 'burning
bowels of the earth'?
Answer the following question briefly:
Do you think the snake was conscious of the poet's presence? How do you know?
Answer the following question briefly:
The poet has a dual attitude towards the snake. Why does he experience conflicting emotions on seeing the snake?
Answer the following question briefly:
The poet experiences feelings of self-derision, guilt and regret after hitting the snake. Pick out expressions that suggest this. Why does he feel like this?
Read the given excerpt and answer the questions briefly.
| But must I confess how I liked him, How glad I was he had come like a guest in quiet, to drink at my water-trough And depart peaceful, pacified, and thankless, Into the burning bowels of this earth? |
- What can be inferred about the speaker's attitude towards nature based on the excerpt? (1)
- List the meaning of the phrase "burning bowels of this earth”. (1)
- How is the snake's arrival and departure symbolic? (1)
- The speaker compares the snake to the guest. Which word in the extract displays the snake’s non-guest like behaviour? (1)
